Frances Langford was, in my opinion, one of the more under-appreciated of the female vocalists from the big band era. She had a lovely, dark-toned voice and an impeccable style. (Her range dropped from soprano to contralto as a girl because of a tonsillectomy.) Although she was attractive, she was not a drop-dead beauty, and that may have had something to do with why her career did not reach the heights of some of her contemporaries. However, her tours with Bob Hope did help make her a household name.
In contrast, her fellow musician on the Hope tours, Skinnay [sic] Ennis, had to have been just about the worst of the male crooners. His voice was just barely strong enough to be heard, even with a mike, and was not that good even when you could hear it. His phrasing was suspect at best. Maybe his contract as band leader required that they let him sing on the shows, but they would have been much better off to have let Langford have an extra song and to have cut out Ennis from the slate.
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